The world of scholarship and science is currently in disarray and under severe threat. In their recently published article, "The Institutes for Advanced Study and Open Science: Towards a New Dialogue on Academic Identities", SCAS Principal Christina Garsten and former SCAS Short-term Researcher Stefan van Geelen explore how Institutes for Advanced Study (IAS) and Open Science could join forces to tackle these challenges and work towards new academic identities.

The Institutes for Advanced Study (IAS) have always been internationally recognized symbols for academic freedom and pioneering studies of the highest standards. In the last decades, there has been a remarkable proliferation of these centres, to where they are now a global phenomenon. At their root, these institutes all aim for curiosity-based research and the formation of transnational communities engaged in unobstructed scholarship and science. Alongside the worldwide development of the IAS, there has also arisen a parallel movement, commonly known as Open Science. Seen by many academics, institutions, funding bodies and governments as a much-needed transition in university systems, Open Science implies a significant change in academia. Commencing as an initiative to stimulate discussion on open access publishing, shared data-use, academic recognition and rewards, and the legitimacy of impact factors and university rankings, Open Science increasingly also centres on connecting research and education, and science and society. Both in the IAS, as well as in Open Science, there are important developments with regard to transdisciplinary research and education. As of yet, however, a connection between the ideals and aims of the IAS and Open Science has not explicitly been made in the literature. This article aims to open up a dialogue between these driving academic forces, so that they can face the complex challenges in the world together, and work in unison and synergy towards new academic identities.

The article was published in the European Review by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academia Europaea in April 2026. It is available on Open Access.

Christina Garsten is Principal of SCAS, Professor of Social Anthropology at Uppsala University and Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University.

Stefan van Geelen is Associate Professor of Philosophy in Medicine, Programme Manager of the educational strategy ‘The New Utrecht School’ of the University Medical Center Utrecht, and Coordinator of the MSc-programme Medical Humanities of Utrecht University.